Obama Campaign Launches ‘Truth Teams’

SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — The Obama campaign is beginning a new effort on Monday to enlist and educate at least two million supporters for a “grassroots communications team” they’re calling the Truth Team.

“The goal is to ensure that when Republicans attack President Obama’s record, grassroots supporters can take ownership of the campaign and share the facts with the undecided voters in their lives,” the campaign said in a statement.

The teams will be first launched in 13 “swing states,” including Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina,Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin.

The rollout also includes a social media blitz, directing supporters to three new websites: KeepingHisWord.com, which highlights Obama’s record and “promises kept”; KeepingGOPHonest.com, which highlights GOP policy positions; and AttackWatch.com, which fact-checks claims made against Obama on the campaign trail.

“If the other guys are going to run a campaign based on misrepresenting the president’s record — and their own — we have two options: sit back and let these lies go unchallenged, or fight back with the truth,” deputy Obama campaign manager Stephanie Cutter said in an email. “We’re fighting back.”

So far, the “other guys” mentioned on the three websites are almost exclusively limited to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. There is one mention of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and one mention of the pro-Republican super PAC Americans for Prosperity.

Obama organized a similar grassroots effort in 2008 — Fight the Smears — that involved more than one million supporters, campaign aides said.﻿